East Blue's Beasts
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: Luffy never bothered to think about what would happen in East Blue once he reached the Grand Line. He should have.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We do not own One Piece**

**...**

"Gin, drink this, hurry, it should help with the pain."

"I don't want it."

"But if you don't have something you're going to die!"

"I knew that the moment I inhaled that poison."

These were the words that Don Krieg, formally the most infamous pirate in East Blue, awoke to. A single hand rose up and rubbed at his eyes as he tried to recall how he had ended up in this predicament. Pushing himself into a sitting position he realised that there was a lot less weight on him than usual. It was during these few short moments that recent memories began to surge forward once again, how his golden armour had been destroyed at the hands of the rubber pirate he had been fighting upon the Baratie.

A vicious crack echoed out as he slammed his fist against the wall next to where he had been laying, alerting all those around him that he had indeed regained consciousness. "Captain," said Gin, ignoring the fact that blood was dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. Krieg looked at the commander of his fleet and at the wreck that he had become. It was clear to see that some number of hours had passed since the battle upon the Baratie had taken place if the lack of colour in Gin's face was any indication. Don Krieg was actually surprised that his commander had survived this long but he guessed that he had to have selected him for a reason in the first place.

Pushing himself to a standing position, Krieg stumbled at first as he leant against the wall in order to prevent himself from falling over, hating himself for showing such weakness in front of his men. There was something he had to do immediately however and the scorching pain raging through his body was not going to stop him by any means. Marching forward, deep breathes escaped his lungs as he moved to where Gin stood, the rest of his crew seemingly parting like torn pieces of paper. Gin sat there knowing full well what was coming his way and embraced the sickening punch that caught him across the jaw with enough force to dislocate his jaw.

"Gin/Don Krieg!" shouted the members of the crew as they looked on in shock at what their captain had done. One of the men rushed down to where Gin's unmoving body was and held it in his arms before looking up to his captain. "You killed him!"

"He was going to die anyway, I merely put him out of his misery," stated Krieg without a hint of remorse in his voice. "Wasting resources on him would have been a waste of time before we journey back to the Grand Line."

"So you still want to go back, captain," stated Gin, making everybody watch in disbelief as he got to his feet. A few turned towards the man who had diagnosed their commander as having passed on to the next life in confusion. "My heart beat is quite weak at the moment, I doubt even the finest doctor would have been able to hear it."

"So now, even at death's door you choose to defy me," declared Krieg looking at the person who was once his most loyal follower.

"It doesn't matter how many men you have, nor how many ships," said Gin as his eyes began to glaze over. "What you lack Krieg is heart."

"Heart?"

"You saw it, didn't you," started Gin as he dropped to his knees, life slipping out of him second by second. "When you were fighting...Straw Hat..."

The last breath escaped Gin's mouth as he fell forward, his face colliding with the wooden boards of the house they were holed up in. Don Krieg however seethed with anger, his hand balling into a fist as veins surged on his temples. Caring not for his desecration of the dead, Krieg stomped onto the back of Gin's head and drove the deceased man's face into the ground shocking everybody else who was in the room at the time.

* * *

><p>Kuro rubbed his temple, his head still slightly pounding. The pirate glanced around the deck of the damaged ship, noting that no one would look him in the eyes. They were afraid.<p>

Afraid he would snap and kill them all.

He sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose, what idiots. It would make no sense for him to kill them out at seas, he couldn't man a ship the size of Bezan Black on his own.

He slowly walked over to the only member of the crew left alive that had any knowledge of smithing. Kuro coldly looked down on the trembling man. "My claws."

The burly man licked his lips, his arms shook as he presented Kuro's signature weapon. The man was weak, Kuro despised weakness.

Kuro slipped on the gloves and inspected the metal before sheathing the claws back into the gloves. "Shoddy work," he muttered, "but it will have to do."

"Oi!" A drunken voice roared from the opposite side of the deck, "who the hell do you think you are?"

The owner of the voice was stumbling towards him, clutching a sword in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. The drunk man's face was red and he stank of booze. "Waltzing back here after admitting that you were going to kill us!"

Kuro's eyes narrowed into slits as the man drew closer, he unsheathed his claws. "I am Kuro of a Thousand Plans, someone far above your caliber."

The drunkard snarled. "Stop using 'dem fancy words, thinking you're better than the rest of us!" The man raised his sword.

It was over in a flash. The decapitated man's head sailed over the edge of the railing and into the sea below. Kuro turned to face the crew. "I don't think I'm better than you, I am better than you. It's a fact."

A few low angry murmurings came from the crowd but no one stepped up to challenge him. "Back to work, the ship won't repair itself". Kuro glanced down at the sanguine fluid pooling at his feet. "And somebody clean this mess up"

Kuro strode over to the captain's quarters, his head was getting worse. Kuro pulled off his deadly gloves and took off his jacket. Damn that idiotic rubber brat, preaching about how his crew were his friends.

How had someone with such a naive ideology bested him?

He collapsed into a chair, his head in his hands. He inhaled and exhaled, calming himself. His brain was one of his strongest weapons, he couldn't waste too much time thinking about his defeat.

A sudden idea struck the infamous pirate captain, the brat wanted to be King of the Pirates. He was leaving East Blue for the Grand Line.

His headache gone, Kuro stood up as a plan began to form in his mind.

"Go and have your merry adventure with your friends Straw Hat Luffy," Kuro spoke out loud, cold anger surging in his obsidian eyes. "But when you return, East Blue will have gone up in flames."

* * *

><p>His men walked in muted silence, no one daring to speak, as they marched behind Krieg down the beach towards the port town. They walked forward with their eyes on their feet, no one daring to look at their captain and the blood dripping down his fist.<p>

A few brave but foolish men had attacked Krieg in a blind fury after he had killed Gin.

Krieg had put all the corpses in a mound and torched them.

Krieg strode forward with purpose, his imposing figure silhouetted against the sun's rays. Don Krieg, terror of East Blue, was heading back to the Grand Line. The few men that still followed him only agreed to go back to that hell on earth for one reason.

Krieg had threatened, no promised, to snap the neck of any man who attempted to desert the pirate captain.

And now they were going to raze the quaint little port town on the island they had seeked refuge on to the ground. They'd storm whatever military base was in the town for weapons before taking over one of the ships docked at the harbour. They'd kill as much as many of the townsfolk as possible as they left.

The less loose ends the better.

Krieg clutched a large butcher cleaver in his dominant hand while his men went in unarmed. "Some of you will die," Krieg announced to the group behind them as they entered the final stretch towards the town, "but if we don't do this...I'll kill every last one of you myself."

A woman hanging up her washing on the side of the beaten road waved to them. "You guys are looking much better than before, leaving already?" Krieg casually rolled his shoulders and nodded. As they passed each other, he sprung. Don Krieg was fast without his heavy armour dragging him down.

Deadly fast.

The woman collapsed to the ground, spasming as her lifeblood gushed out from her slit throat. Krieg didn't spare her a second glance. "Men, you know what to do."

His pawns screamed out their war cries and stampeded past him. More willing to assault a town with their bare hands than to disobey "Foul Play" Don Krieg. Krieg tightened his grip on the cleaver and followed them, missing the comforting weight of his wootz armour.

Damn you, Straw Hat Luffy.

His men had already found a gun store by the time he reached them, the sounds of gunshots and screams deafening him. Men, women and children were gunned down as they attempted to flee.

Krieg pillaged a pistol from one of his fallen men and cocked it. He took careful aim at a fleeing merchant and fired.

Headshot.

Krieg smiled and pocketed the weapon. "Enough!" He roared over his men and within seconds they fell silent, "to the harbour!"

His men fell behind him with ashen faces, blood dripping off their clothes. They found a decent-sized ship that would be easy to man and Krieg gave his men their orders. "Kill everyone on board but one, bring the survivor to me."

"Wait," he called over a small portion of his men, "you guys go get necessary supplies, rations, ammunition, etc." The men nodded and dispersed leaving Krieg to wait.

Five minutes later, two of his men dragged a middle-aged sailor towards him. Don Krieg pointed his gun lazily at the sailor's head. "You're going to do me a little favour."

"A-anything," the sailor stammered as he fell to his knees and Krieg noticed with distaste that the man had pissed himself.

"Tell the villagers that the next time they insult me, Straw Hat Luffy, that I'll kill every last one of them."

The man nodded feverishly and sprinted off. Within hours all the survivors on the island will have heard the name of their attacker.

His crew followed him on board his new ship.

He wasn't called "Foul Play" Krieg for nothing.

* * *

><p>The next day, Kuro was woken from his slumber by banging on the door. He plucked his glasses from the bedside and slid them up his nose. "This better be important," he called out as he rose from the bed, "enter."<p>

One of his pawns burst into his quarters. "Cap'n," he announced, "ship off the starboard brow."

Kuro grinned and slipped on his claws. "I forgive you for waking me up." He strode onto deck and blinked in surprise.

The ship was heading right for them.

Kuro sharpened his claws against each other and gestured to the Nyaban Brothers to join him at the railing. "Black Cat Pirates," he called out, "get ready for a raid!"

* * *

><p>Don Krieg cracked his knuckles, his men ran around the deck like headless chickens as they approached the cat-themed pirate ship.<p>

"Krieg Pirates!" He roared, "get ready for a raid!"

* * *

><p><strong>Brought to you by Razamataz22 and Dying Grin <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: We do not own One Piece**

**...**

The Nyaban Brothers leaped the space between the two ships with ease. They landed with catlike grace and instantly were upon the other crew. They didn't speak or cunningly pretend to be cowards. They just fought like machines. They had to prove themselves to Kuro or suffer the consequences.

Sham uppercutted a burly man into the air, dodging another pirate's slash in the process. He flipped backwards and performed a handstand, kicking two swordsmen in their faces.

Buchi threw one bald man into two of his allies. He headbutted another pirate, knocking the man unconscious. His fist shot out and buried itself in another adversary's stomach.

The two ship guards stood back-to-back, ready for more. Two crowds surged at them from either side. The Nyaban Brothers smirked in unison.

"Neko-Yanagi Daikoshin!"

Kuro watched them silently from the edge of Bezan Black's railings as their arms became blurs. Slicing and dicing the crowd around them.

Kuro turned to his crew. "I want the ten best marksmen to stay behind and fire the cannons," he ordered, "the rest of you grapple over and join battle.

The crew roared in affirmative.

* * *

><p>Theo Raw was having a bad day to say the least. He had woken up with a horrible cold and none of the medicine on the ship was helping. His nose was runny, his throat swollen and his eyes watery. The incoming cannon bombardment wasn't helping his pounding headache either.<p>

He pinched his nose and maneuvered around the cramped bowels of the ship. He gestured over to one of his underlings. "Why the hell have we stopped firing back?"

His servant wiped the sweat from his brow and cursed. "Sir, this is a merchant vessel."

"I am well aware of that!" Theo snapped, "but we made sure to stock up on extra cannonballs before we left the port. There shouldn't be any problems.

Both men nearly fell to the floor as they felt a cannon smash into the floor above them. "Shit," Theo's henchman cursed, "the amount of cannonballs isn't the problem here."

Theo grabbed the man by the hem of his shirt and pulled him close. "Then what is the problem, pray tell?"

"The cannons are rusted on the insides. The old owners must have never used or cared for them. One of the cannons blew up when we tried to use it, we can't risk firing back again."

Theo's heart sank. "Shit."

* * *

><p>Kuro raised his hand. "Stop firing," he commanded, "They haven't fired back in nearly a minute now. They're obviously out of cannons. No need to waste our ammunition."<p>

His marksmen nodded and stepped away from the cannons, smiling and highfiving each other. Kuro glared at them. "What are you standing around for? Get over to the other ship and join the battle!"

His men scrambled for rope while yelling out apologies. They left the safety of Bezan Black, leaving only Kuro and his thoughts onboard.

Kuro was a patient man if ever there was one, watching from behind his glasses as he watched his crew clash against the enemy with many of his loyal servants being slaughtered against the superior numbers. Looking over his shoulder he was surprised to discover that one of the enemies had managed to slip all the way behind enemy lines in an attempt to kill him and claim the glory for himself.

Admirable, perhaps.

Foolish, definitely.

The pirate bellowed out a vicious roar as he swung his sabre diagonally, slicing straight through Kuro. The smirk upon his face vanished just as the image before him fluttered away, like nothing had ever been there. Before the pirate could even comprehend what had happened his head was removed from his torso, causing a geyser of blood to burst outwards as the body dropped to the ground, Kuro standing behind the corpse and ready for battle. He pushed up his glasses from the bridge of his nose with his palm, careful not to slice himself with the blades which extended from every finger.

Then he vanished.

Confusion reigned supreme as both crews numbers dropped dramatically. Kuro advanced forward, not caring whose blood bathed upon his swords. Moving swiftly through the crowds he danced between both friend and foe, leaving none in his wake. Eventually he came to a stop upon the railing of the ship, blood dripping from his weapons into the ocean beneath him.

"Captain Kuro," shouted his own men, both happy and afraid that their leader had taken to the battlefield.

"Considering the lot of you are incompetent at completing the task assigned to you, I will give you five seconds to return to our vessel before I kill everybody remaining upon this deck," threatened Kuro.

The members of the Krieg pirates immediately thought that the man was bluffing. When every member of his crew however scrambled over the deceased and dying bodies of their compatriots they couldn't help but feel a little threatened. One of the crewmembers charged forward unafraid, intending to impale the enemy square through the heart. The rest of the Krieg pirates had to blink twice as the enemy captain appeared behind the man before any of them had had the time to contemplate what had happened. A single second ticked by before the foolhardy man dropped to his knees, five horizontal lines ripped across his torso deep enough to show both muscle and bone. Another second passed and the man's intestines spilled onto the deck, before the man died without truly understanding what had happened to him.

"Now, allow me to offer you a proposition," stated Kuro as he adjusted his glasses. "Know however that if a single one of you refuses my conditions I will have no choice but to execute each and every one of you with a smile upon my face." Kuro paused for a couple of seconds as he watched the fear settle into the hearts of the men before him, the distinguished smell of urine indicating that one of them had emptied their bladder. "It seems all of you know what lies ahead for you. That makes this negotiation much easier. I will inform you that there are two conditions that are nonnegotiable. Firstly I want you to bring out everything of value you have on this ship. Every. Last. Piece. Secondly, atop the chest I want to have the head of your captain."

The Krieg pirates began looking amongst one another in fear, suddenly feeling that they were stuck on a volcanic island with Sea Kings awaiting them in the water. In front of them was a man faster than any they had ever seen with swords for fingers, intent on hacking his way through all of them if they didn't comply with his demands. Their target however was just as intimidating and with the experience of having followed that man for quite some time, even into the Grand Line, they were well aware of what their captain was capable of.

A sickening thud echoed out on the deck as the door to the Captain's Quarters swung open with such force that it was nearly ripped off of it's hinges. Slow steps drowned out the sounds of the waves crashing against the hull of the ship as the armoured Captain stepped forward, over the bodies of his men without any remorse upon his face. He had waited out the fight, having expected his crew to slaughter the opposition without any resistance but clearly he had been mistaken. With Gin having died and Pearl still in a coma he had wanted somebody to have stepped up to the plate and show that they wanted to become second in command. It seemed however that none of his crew had neither the spine nor the skills to be able to fill in Gin's shoes.

"Now, remember my generous proposition," stated Kuro as he looked at the enemy, noting straight away by the way that the man postured himself that this was the captain of the ship. Also considering that the man wore a bronze set of armour that adorned his entire body and wielded a brutal looking spear. It was a bit of a dead give away, as if calling out 'Kill me and my men will flee.'

"If one of you maggots so much as think of betraying me I will rip off your jaw and shove it down your throat," threatened Krieg.

"My, my, temper," said Kuro as he adjusted his tuxedo. "If I'm not mistaken you would be the infamous Don Krieg, although I must say you hardly live up to your reputation. I was under the impression that your armour was made of something much more valuable but clearly fact and fabrications became mixed in some drunken alley."

A snarl escaped Krieg's lips both at the insult and the memory that his better armour was in pieces at the bottom of the ocean, the plethora of weapons he brandished lost for all eternity. While he had thought that the armour was invincible he was still prepared for anything. This armour had been the first forged specifically for him, and once he had upgraded to his golden armour he had stashed his bronze equipment at his base for safekeeping, never thinking that he would have had to wear it again. "I will take great pleasure in tearing you limb from limb," said Krieg as he prepared for battle. His crew, seemingly understanding that the deck was by no means the safest place to be with these two captains going at one another took the sensible option and leapt overboard and into the water below, believing it to be much more secure.

Rolling his shoulder, Krieg did his best to push the pain he had accumulated from his previous bout to the back of his mind. He focused upon the task at hand. Just because he had lost his best armour meant by no means that he was going into battle without some manner of tricks up his sleeve. Taking the initiative he raised up his left wrist, allowing a small compartment to open up and shoot out dozens of nails as fast as a gun would shoot a bullet.

A loud clang rang out as Kuro's blades scratched across Krieg's chestplate with enough force to indent the metal and knock the bigger man back a step. Snarling, Krieg swung his spear around his body, hoping that the tip would spill the bastards innards onto the deck. Another clang rang out however, notifying him that his attempt had been unsuccessful.

Kuro materialised several feet away from him, the former butler inspecting his arsenal carefully, knowing full well that it would take some manner of time to hack his way through the armour. With an evil glint in his eye he knew that he'd have to go about this in a different way altogether if he wanted to be successful without destroying his weapons.

Krieg blinked before he leant backwards, Kuro having leaped up at tremendous speed with the intent of driving two of the blades straight through Krieg's eyes. With him airborne however that gave Krieg the perfect opportunity to launch a counterattack, two nozzles appearing from above his shoulders which quickly shot fire into the prone form of Kuro.

"Captain Kuro!" shouted the members of the Black Cat pirates, all of them fearing for the safety of their captain. Their worries were misplaced however as Kuro appeared upon the deck once more, the man tearing the smoldering coat off of his body before the lingering flames started to burn at his flesh.

"It would seem as if your defence is also your offence," stated Kuro. "Undoubtedly it will take some manner of time to pierce that armour of yours but thankfully no other appointments require my attention, so I can take all day to dissect you if that is required."

"I'm going to tear you apart you snobbish prick and then I'm going to go after that rubber bastard and rip him to shreds," declared Krieg as he lifted up his wrist once more, this time firing off handfuls of wooden stakes.

"Rubber you say," said Kuro as he weaved in between the stakes with minimal difficulty. "By chance you wouldn't be talking about an annoying brat with a straw hat?"

"Are you in cahoots with that trash?" shouted Krieg in anger.

"By no means," said Kuro as a devilish smirk crossed his features. "I must say however that I now have a proposition for you that would benefit both parties."

"And what the hell would that be?" asked Krieg.

"The head of Monkey D Luffy."

…

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**This chapter brought to you by Razamataz22 and Dying Grin.**


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